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The Rapids who some were thought to go with adding some depth to their midfield, in the draft today instead went with strengthening their back line somewhat with two defenders in the first two rounds. Colorado held the 19th pick to start the day and ended up trading up with Columbus to gain the 14th pick, That pick was Swedish born Axel Sjoberg, 6’7″ out of Marquette University.

The Rapids also held the 26th pick overall and in the second round selected Joseph Greenspan out of the U.S. Naval Academy. How soon we get to see Greenspan take the pitch will be decided by the Naval Academy, Greenspan has his commitment to the military that could be done while he pursues a professional soccer career, think David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs or even later.

Welcome to both Axel Sjoberg and Joseph Greenspan!

Rapids also made another surprise move today by trading allocation money and rank to the Los Angeles Galaxy for midfielder Marcelo Sarvas. Sarvas a fan favorite in LA comes over to the Rapids as a key contributor to the Galaxy success winning MLS Cup titles with the Galaxy in 2012 and 2014. Sarvas started 80 of the 88 appearances he made for the Galaxy, even 3 goals and 11 assists in 2014. This makes up for the loss of Jose Mari this season as he wanted to return to Spain to continue his career.

Welcome Marcelo Sarvas!

Not sure how I missed this one but Chris Bianchi reported earlier in the week that the Rapids have signed a midfielder out of Argentina by the name of Lucas Pittinari. Pittinari, 23, played 5 years in the top flight in Argentine Primera Division with Club Atletico Belgrano and comes over on a one year loan with the option to purchase. Full story here. To translate the page if using Google Chrome, right click and highlight “Translate to English”.

Welcome Lucas Pittinari!

Overall the Rapids I would say had a very productive draft day, acquiring two quality defenders and later trading for an experienced midfielder in Sarvas. My biggest concern is whether or not Pablo and his staff can develop the new talent (Sjoberg and Greenspan) and put together a solid gameplan week after week for the team to have much more success in 2015. Only time will tell as training camps start next week.

Rounds 3 and 4 of the MLS Super Draft take place next Tuesday via phone conference.

As if the lack of positive results on the field weren’t bad enough, it seems as if the Rapids front office is getting in the act of producing bad results as well. Former MLS/Rapids and Denver Post beat writer Chris Bianchi tells the story of his recent firing and how the Rapids front office, specifically Tim Hinchey may be involved. Read the full story here.

Here Keith Olbermann sums it all up in the Rapids Tim Hinchey making Olbermann’s “worst persons in the sports world” segment coming at the 1:27 mark. Way to go Hinchey, not the type of publicity you want for yourself or the club!